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Fun Valentine Gift List

*This is a Sponsored Post*

Valentines day is a week away and this year I’ve been looking for unusual Valentine gifts. My kids love Valentines day, we have little mailboxes, valentine cards, chocolate, and a tea party for dinner. But for me, let’s be honest, hubby and I are a bit tired of the usual chocolate and roses every year. So, I’ve rounded up some family friendly, unique Valentine gifts for this year!

1. Sunglasses from Sunglass Warehouse – Summer is just around the corner so what better way to say “I love you” than with a cool new pair of sunglasses? Sunglass Warehouse has sunglasses that are fun and inexpensive. So I can gift something useful and fun without breaking the bank!

I’m loving these Oversize Cat Eyed Sunglasses – Bianca by Foster Grant. They’re so much fun! And this pink Daisy case is perfect for keeping them safe!

And check out the “Superman” glasses that I got for my husband. They remind me of the glasses Clark Kent wears. For some reason I’ve always loved this style on my hubby! They’re actually called Castle Rock, and they’re Polarized Retro Square Sunglasses. My husband saw them when I was taking pictures and stole them right away (I almost didn’t get pictures), couldn’t even wait for Valentines Day. And at $15 they’re practically a steal. He stuck these glasses in the soft case with a cleaning cloth, and he’s good to go.

2. Glow Battle from Starlux Games – I have 4 kids and this makes a perfect group gift for them! They’re basically light up foam swords and the kids love them! Even the 2 yr old insists on being in on the action.

They have a switch for turning them on and off and have a replaceable battery so they’re amazing for multiple uses. The foam is soft and covered with a plastic sheet that is sword patterned.

There’s 10 swords (5 blue, 5 green), 10 bracelets (5 blue, 5 green), a whole stack of game ideas, and 8 beacons (4 blue, 4 green). From just running around the yard and sword fighting, to capture the flag with the beacons, they’re having a blast. And we’re planning a back yard evening with friends as soon as the weather warms up so we can use all 10 swords at once!

I am loving how Starlux games has replaceable batteries because I know we’re going to go through a lot of them this summer!

3. Umbrella from La Bella Umbrella – I’m just loving this “Love at Sunset” umbrella from La Bella Umbrella. They have a variety of umbrella designs and styles to choose from. From animals, to food, to paintings. And considering the amount of rain we’ve gotten so far this February, this is the best Valentine Gift yet!

While the hand shaped heart is perfect for a Valentine Gift to my husband, it’s also a great gift for my girls, who love pictures with hearts and love umbrellas. In fact, I chose the stick umbrella because it’s their favorite style!

This umbrella is sturdy, large, and so cute! If you don’t want hearts they have many other fun designs. And they have umbrella styles from stick to automatic so there’s easily something for everyone.

It’s so hard to not just claim this umbrella as my own. I’m just loving the white handle! It’s large, soft, and has a terrific grip making it a lot easier to hold on to.

And, it comes in a carrying case with a strap so I can tote it around hands free if I want it along but don’t need it yet!

With these gifts, we’re basically all set for spring! Sunglasses, umbrella, back yard game! Because once Valentines day is over, I’m hoping for some early spring weather!

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HuePets – Review

Thanks to Tryazon for sending the HuePets party pack to share with my friends!

We combined our HuePets party with a birthday party and I gave away the Hue Pets swag as part of our party favors. All the kids loved the squishies and we parents had a great time discussing the new HuePets app and how difficult it often is to get our kids to eat their veggies!

Because of the number of kids, bananagrams wasn’t a huge hit, but it’s definitely a fun game that involves fruit! And we made sure we kept 1 cookbook for ourselves. My kids love to cook and I’m excited that they want to cook with more fruits and veggies!

The HuePets app is super easy to use. Just scan your food and it walks you through the rest. It’s a fun way to track what everyone is eating!

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Now More Than Ever Disney Party

A big thank you to Disney and BSM Media for this awesome free Disney Party Box! This #NowMoreThanEver box was packed with so many awesome items!

There were a few different styles of boxes that went out. We received the Mickey Mouse box. We all LOVE Mickey Mouse. We had family and friends in town for the week of July 4th, so we popped open our box and had a week of partying!

One of the most popular items in our box was this Popped Passion Popcorn cake. We had a fun lunch of hotdogs and hamburgers and pulled out this fun cake for dessert. My littlest guy loved it so much he tried to claim all of it for himself.

The next day we used our Mickey themed plates, cups, and napkins for a picnic in the park. I would have used the tablecloth too but the kids snuck it out for a lemonade stand with their friends the day before. Mickey definitely made it around town this week!

A coupon for a free family sized Michael Angelos meal was included in our box. And this made for a great “after swimming” snack for all these kiddos. And we finished off our weekend with this fun Mickey piñata.

This was supposedly a box for my 6yr old (who’s a boy) but there were a lot of girl themed items.

This Mickey Pillow Pet was well loved. It has hearts on it so none of the boys wanted it. But the girls were all about it! It’s super cute, and makes a great addition to my daughter’s pillow collection – yes, she has a pillow collection.

And the matching Belle dress and doll are adorable! We gave these to one of our guests. She’s 3 and the dress fits her with a little room to grow and she’s super excited to have such a fun doll for her trip home.

The Mickey Mouse Masks were a very popular item. I spent days “stalking” the kids trying to get a picture of them wearing these, but they were having so much fun, I never managed to get someone standing still long enough to get a good picture – LOL.

We had so much fun sharing our Disney Fun with friends and family!

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Powerpuff Party

I received this product free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own. Thanks to Tryazon and 3Doodler for the awesome party package!

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We had lots of fun with our 3Doodler Powerpuff kit! The kids liked the idea of creating their own Powerpuff character. However, in reality, we ended up with a bunch of pieces and a whole lot of eyes.

We love the original 3Doodler pens and my kids have spent hours designing things with theirs. And while I hope to one day finish my Powerpuff character, the character mold requires a lot of plastic and more time than I have at the moment. I managed to get 2 eyes done and then had to go do something else and when I returned the kids had removed my eyes and started their own project. So, I made 2 more eyes and it happened again. One day when I have time, I’ll do a whole Powerpuff girl without interruption.

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The kit comes with instructions, a pen, a head mold, and a few other forms. The head mold is larger than it looks and it took me basically an entire piece of plastic to do the black in the eyes. So, it takes a really long time to get all that plastic on there. The kids were pretty good at making accessories and they even managed an eye, the old kid at the party was 9 and even she lost interest before the project was completed.

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I really feel like this amount of detail is going to work better with older kids and adults.

While making the Powepuff girls is quite difficult, all the kids loved using the other round molds to make things like eyeglasses, hats, and such.

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All that to say, we had lots of fun making accessories, just didn’t get any actual Powerpuffs made. The box says 8+ for the age, which is pretty accurate, in my opinion. We just didn’t have enough time at the party for everyone to try it and to actually make a Powerpuff. However, sometime after the holidays are over and I have some free time, I’m going to sit down and make a Powerpuff or two because it really is lots of fun and they look so cute!

You can get your own kits from amazon:

Get the starter kit if you need a pen: or the activity kit will do if you already have a pen:

This post does contain affiliate links.

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Our Ozobot Party

I received this product free from Tryazon for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

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I received two Ozobots for free to host an Ozobot party. These things were way more awesome than I expected! First off, the color “coding” is really easy. In this picture, you can see one of the kids picking from the code bank to give directions to the Ozobot or “Bot”, which is what the kids named it.

The Ozobot package comes with the Ozobot, puzzle cards, markers, and a charging cable. My party kit also included a few experience packs which were papers with paths and other coding ideas for the Ozobot.

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As soon as I got it out the kids swarmed to it. The adults had to wait until later to try out Bot and his friend. They pulled out the markers and had no problem making paths to tell the Ozobot what to do.

Bot also plays games. Cover the four sensors to cycle through them. My kids favorite is where the Bot follows their hand when they hold it near the Ozobot. It can also run away and play music. So much fun!

And as if this wasn’t enough. There’s even an Ozobot app. It’s super easy to connect your Ozobot to the app, in fact, it practically does it itself. There’s games and other ways to interact with your Ozobot. I tested out the app before my party. I wasn’t really comfortable handing my iPad to a large group of kids so they had to stick with markers and paper for the party.

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Eventually the kids headed off to do other things and the adults got to try their hand at the Ozobots. They’re so much fun for adults and kids!

If you want to purchase your own at Ozobot.com use code OzobotParty1517 for 15% off your puchase. These would make an awesome gift!

 

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Pley Subscription Box Review

I received the Pley Disney Princess box free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

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First off, my 6yr old was so excited to receive her own pink box in the mail! She couldn’t wait to open it.

One box is $29.99 – including shipping or you can get a subscription for $27.99 a box. Boxes ship every other month so you can send your princess 6 boxes a year.

So, what comes in a princess box? I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was actually surprised by the quality of the items.

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  1. The box transforms into a castle – my kids thought this was so cool!
  2. When you sign up, you give your child’s t-shirt size. This t-shirt is so cute!
  3. The book has a story about the princess and some little activities
  4. The figurines were by far my daughter’s favorite – she combined those with her new castle and has had so much fun!
  5. The crown is beautiful and even has a little rose in the center.

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This box contained some really great items that were lots of fun for my daughter to play with. Would my child enjoy a box like this every other month? Yes, she would. Just guessing what princess will come next would be fun and the box items are well selected and so much fun!

You can find out more information on the Pley Disney Princess Website.

And check out my daughter unboxing her new Pley Disney Princess Box.

 

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a well loved favorite in my house. Even my 8yr old still loves it!

So, naturally, when I told the kids we were going to do a fun caterpillar craft, we had to read the book, about a doze time, before we could get started crafting.

We had so much fun making these cute little caterpillars. My girls even made some to take and share with friends, because, honestly, they’re so cute!

These little caterpillars are also fast, and easy to make. For your littles, just have them line up their little pompoms in the order they want them and you do the gluing. My 8yr old was thrilled with the prospect of using the hot glue gun so she insisted on making her own.

WormSupplies

Supplies:

PomPoms
Googly Eyes
Hot Glue Gun

Sounds easy so far! Now, just line up however many pomPoms you want, in whatever color order you want and hot glue them together. After the glue has dried (which is super fast in case your toddler is wondering) you can hot glue gun or stick on the eyes. I prefer the glue because they stick better.

Just look at this cute little caterpillar!

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Easter Egg Jars

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Looking for a super duper easy Easter craft or gift to make with your kids. These Easter Egg mason jars are easy, fast, and fun.

Ingredients:

Shredded coconut
Green food coloring
Colored Egg Candies
Small Mason Jars
Large Ziplock Bag

GrassIngredients

    1. Pour your coconut into the ziplock bag.
    2. Add just a little bit of green food coloring (1/8 to 1/4 tsp depending on how much green you want)
    3. Close the bag, leaving lots of air.
    4. Shake the bag (or do what I did, and have your kids shake the bag) until all the coconut is green.

GreenGrass

  1. Pour your “grass” into your mason jars and top with eggs. You could also toss on a little rabbit or chick if you want more variety.
  2. Want more eggs in your jar? Hide some in the grass and then add the eggs on top.
  3. Set your jars out open on the counter or put on the lid and give as an Easter gift to friends and family.

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Chick Fil A Upcycle Challenge

I’m part of a ChickFilA mom’s panel and for February they are having a upcycle challenge with the Chick Fil A soup bowls.

IMG_20170215_131146104Which, if you haven’t tried their soup. You need to. My kids love the chicken noodle and the southwestern chicken is my favorite, even though I don’t usually enjoy spicy foods.

Then we took our soup containers and the girls made little jewelry boxes. This was a fun and easy craft and we made something useful – just maybe their jewelry will end up in these boxes and not all over the floor!

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Supplies:

  1. ChickFilA soup container – washed and dried
  2. Paint – we used acrylic paint and some puffy paint
  3. Newspaper – for covering your surface, you don’t want to be cleaning acrylic paint off your table
  4. Paintbrushes – we used foam brushes and regular brushes, it’s all about how you prefer to paint
  5. Cup of water – for rinsing brushes
  6. Paper towels – for drying brushes, wiping hands, etc.
  7. If your kids are doing the painting I also recommend an old shirt or paint smock for them.

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Instructions:

  1. Wash and dry your containers
  2. Spread newspaper over your work surface
  3. Paint containers with the acrylic paint. You might want a couple of coats if you want more coverage, I tried to convince my kids to use more paint but they really liked the textured look they were getting with just one coat. Rinse and lay out your brushes to dry. Let your containers dry completely
  4. Add designs with the puffy paint. My girls attempted to draw jewelry with their paint. They even traced the Chick Fil A logo on the lid of their containers because they love Chick Fil A and thought it was so cool to have Chick Fil A jewelry boxes. The puffy paint is also great for keeping the containers from sliding around on hard surfaces. Let this dry overnight or however long your puffy paint says.
  5. Fill with jewelry 🙂

This project was so much fun and let the kids get super creative.

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Last Minute Gift Idea

Scrambling for a last minute gift for that impossible to buy for someone? Here’s a super simple and delicious treat anyone can make.

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1 Cup Tang
1 Cup Lipton Instant Tea
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Mason Jar
Pretty Ribbons

  1. If you have a funnel, use it. It makes pouring into your mason jar so much easier! Pour all 4 of your ingredients in your jar. Put the lid on tight. Shake your jar for a minute or two, until all the ingredients are blended.
  2. Add Ribbon and any other mason jar decorations that you like. Don’t forget to include the serving instructions.
  3. Serving instructions: Combine two heaping spoonfuls of tea mix with hot water in your favorite mug. Stir and enjoy!

Talk about fast and easy! These would also make great teacher gifts, neighbor gifts, or a fun addition to a snack basket or cookie exchange. Be creative. This is so easy to make, and it’s so delicious, you’ll want to make sure you make one for yourself.

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